Air Quality Discussion On Government And Media Micro-blogs:New Converged Political Interactions On Sina Weibo?

With Chinese governments quickly moving online to take advantage of new social media platforms, there are new possibilities for interactions between citizens, media, governments, and other interested parties. Social media in China such as micro-blogs have been instrumental in stimulating the discussions of air quality issues within the country, and the government has exercised more flexibility in allowing people to voice their opinions on this topic. However, a content analysis of media and government Sina Weibo micro-blogs in China’s two arguably most developed cities, Beijing and Shanghai, revealed not only that local government and media are inconsistent in their social media use, but also that these organizations are not using social media to exchange views and ideas with others parties on their micro-blogs. These government and media outlets also rarely post on other government or media micro-blogs. Further content analysis of People’s Daily shows that people are very interested in discussing air quality, but similar to the local level, are not very deliberative on how to improve air quality. The study hopes to stimulate more research into if social media can truly create converged spaces for political deliberation online.